CLEVELAND: Coaches and players through the years have always praised LeBron James for being unselfish on the court.
James, the Akron native with multiple NBA championships, MVP awards and Olympic gold medals, just always seems to look for the best shot when his team has the ball.
Sometimes the best scoring opportunity is when the 32-year-old has the ball in his hands and the basket in sight, and other times the right play is for James to find a teammate cutting to the basket or standing beyond the 3-point arc.
James displayed his all-around game once again Saturday as the Cavs opened up the 2017 playoffs with a 109-108 win over the visiting Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series at Quicken Loans Arena.
Instead of forcing the issue in the first quarter, James stayed committed to finding the open man and didn’t take his first shot until almost 9½ minutes into the game.
As the game progressed, James looked to score more and did just that as he finished with 32 points, 13 assists, six rebounds and three steals before a sellout crowd of 20,562.
“I am happy that we got the victory,” James said after his 200th playoff game. “I am happy with how emotional we were. I am happy with the energy and the effort. We played with energy and effort all night.
“Game 1 has always been a feel-out game for myself; seeing what you can do, seeing what you can do better. You always go into Game 2 even more prepared because you see what type of game plan they have. … As the series go on and on, you start to learn more about the team and more about your opponent and try to be better the next game.”
James’ first-quarter line was 1-of-2 from the field and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line for four points, three assists and two rebounds. The final three quarters were a different story as he finished 12-of-20 from the field (including 2-of-3 from 3-point range) and 6-of-9 from the free-throw line.
“We executed our defensive plan and they made some big shots,” James said. “Offensively, we kind of got a little stagnant and started playing a little bit of isolation, which we are very good at. But no matter what happened, we came out with the win, and in a series I think you get better with time.”
Paul George also seems to get better with age, and the 26-year-old made 9-of-19 field goals (6-of-8 3-pointers) and 5-of-7 free throws for 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
“We are going against a very good opponent in Indiana,” James said. “Coach of the Month [Nate McMillan in April in the Eastern Conference] and Paul George was Player of the Month [in April in the Eastern Conference], so we have to understand that and we have to understand the competition. Like I have said, we understand that no matter who we play, they are going to give us their best shot and Coach [Tyronn] Lue and our coaching staff will give us a great game plan and it is up to us to go out and execute it.”
The other members of the Cavs’ Big Three — Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love — also scored big with 23 points and 17 points, respectively, though Irving did struggle with his shot, making 11-of-27 field goals (including 1-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc).
Irving acknowledged the Cavs “have to do a better job of executing in the fourth quarter.”
“It’s a long journey and we understand that,” Irving said. “So we won’t take one win or any win for granted. We don’t take any possession for granted. Tonight was just a lot of mistakes on our end. A lot of 50-50 basketballs that should’ve been in our hands, a few rebounds kicked out of bounds, and those are things that we can correct.
“We’ve just got to take it game-by-game and we understand that we have a veteran group, and if we do that we will put ourselves in a great position.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.